Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist
by Kevin D. Matthews on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 3:01pm ยท
If you think the current debates in Washington are new, I hate to disappoint you. The same basic arguement has been going on for more then 200 years. The Founding Fathers in all of their wisdom, couldn’t figure it all out either.
George Washington, as our 1st President, advised against forming political parties. Turns out he was correct. After he left office and before he died, the political parties were already forming.
The two original parties were the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist (who became the Demcratic-Republican Party and eventually the Democratic Party). At noted in, Publisher: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia – The Democratic Party evolved from Anti-Federalist factions that opposed the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized these factions into the Democratic-Republican Party. The party favored states’ rights and strict adherence to the Constitution.
Note: The Anti-Federalist (Democrats) favored States Rights and were opposed to the strong central government favored by the Federalist. Today, it seems the Democrats are on the othe side of the issue.
The big issue was Federal vs. state government. The Founding Fathers, not trusting a central government first created the “Articles of Confederation.” The articles were our first constitution and created a very loosely connected relationship between the 13 original states. It didn’t take long for the nation’s leaders to understand that the Articles of Confederation did not work well and called for a conference to modify the document.
The Constitutional convention quickly realized that they could not fix the Articles of Confederation and set out to create a new constitution. The debate between federal and state continued. For more information, please read ‘The Federalist Papers.” You can find them online. Also read the “Anti-Federalist Papers.” These will really show you were the founding fathers stood on many issues.
Even after the creation and ratification of our “Constitution,” the issue was still not settled. For the next 50 years the nation would continue to fight this battle, mainly around the issue of slavery.
In the mid-1800′s a new political party would rise from the struggle. Lead by Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party would lead the fight against slavery culminating in the Civil War. Ironically, the Republican Party is going to strengthen the position of the Federal Government, which is conflict with today’s Republican Party. I must make it clear, the Republican Party was not founded on the principles of big government but opposed slavery and desired to preserve and protect the union between the states.
As we continued through our history, “The Progressive Era” would lead the way in strengthening the Federal Government into the early part of 1900′s. The Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt would take the progressive agenda and mold the power of Federal Government into pretty much what we see today.
Having seen the recent battles over health care, it is safe to say the struggle continues between those who see the Federal Government as the answer to many problems and those who strongly believe in the ideas of limited powers of the Federal Government.
Page I of the Articles of Confederation Created November 15, 1777 Ratified January 1781.
So, the battles we see in Washington today are not new. Even our Founding Fathers could not agree on the issues.
